January 22 marked the centenary of a momentous event in the history of Ukraine. It was on January 22, 1919, that all Ukrainian lands, east and west, were consolidated into one independent and sovereign Ukrainian state in the aftermath of the first world war. The Act of Union brought about the unification of the Ukrainian National Republic and the Western Ukrainian National Republic – the fulfillment of a long-held dream.
The Act of Union of 1919 has been celebrated by generations of Ukrainians, both in Ukraine and in the diaspora. We have vivid memories of the first symbolic human chain organized by Rukh, the Popular Movement of Ukraine, in 1990 to mark the 71st anniversary of the reunification of all Ukrainian lands. As faithful readers of this newspaper will no doubt recall, 1990 was a year of remarkable transitions for Ukraine at a time when it still was part of the Soviet Union. The human chain of 1990 was but one of its major developments, but it foreshadowed what was to come.
On Sunday, January 21, 1990, up to half a million Ukrainians joined hands along a 300-mile route from Kyiv – where the Act of Union had been proclaimed – to Zhytomyr, Rivne, Ternopil and Lviv, and via a loop to Ivano-Frankivsk, this newspaper reported. Manifestations of solidarity were organized from Kharkiv in the Russified eastern part of Ukraine to Mukachiv in the west, as well as by Ukrainian societies in Moscow, Riga and Vilnius, and throughout the Ukrainian diaspora. Rukh activist Volodymyr Yavorivsky told the Associated Press that the human chain was organized because “we felt the hunger for unity.” He added: “We needed to feel we are a people, we are a nation united against the problems of Chornobyl, economic problems, ecological problems and the [Communist] party apparatus.” Multitudes of smiling and flag-waving people representing all segments of Ukrainian society were seen in photos from this very public manifestation of the people’s will.
Significantly, that first human chain took place less than six months before another historic event: the July 16, 1990, Declaration of State Sovereignty adopted by the newly elected Parliament of Ukraine (elections were held on March 4 of that year), a precursor to the August 24, 1991, Act of Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine that unequivocally established Ukraine’s path.
The year 2019 also marks the fifth year of Moscow’s attempts to disunify Ukraine. Russia began dismembering Ukraine with the takeover of the Crimean peninsula in February-March 2014 and then with its invasion of the country’s eastern regions. As we noted in “2014: The Year in Review,” Russian President Vladimir Putin denied the presence of his forces in Ukraine (remember, they were merely little green men dressed in army surplus garb). Yet that didn’t stop him from revealing his plans for Ukraine during an April 17, 2014, live broadcast on TV. He indicated that, at a minimum, he intended to separate the eight oblasts of southeastern Ukraine, a region that he dubbed “Novorossiya.” And he also hinted at the annexation of all of Ukraine, when he said that Ukraine and Russia were “part of a single space” and “a single people.”
Sadly, Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, Ukraine’s soldiers bravely fight on, and Ukraine’s people continue to suffer. And still, the people of Ukraine insist on demonstrating their unity and independence against all odds.
This year on January 22, the national holiday known as the Day of Unity of Ukraine, a human chain was formed along Kyiv’s Paton Bridge over the Dnipro River to celebrate the 1919 Act of Union. Numerous other events were held in Ukraine’s capital, and human chains and other commemorations took place throughout the country. Speaking that day, President Petro Poroshenko told the people of Ukraine: “…our future is our common cause. I am sure that together we are strong. Together, and only together, we will definitely win. …Today, we are a great and united European nation, and we are proud of Ukraine.”
As for us, we await the day when a new human chain will unite all Ukrainian lands, from the Lviv and Zakarpattia regions to the Kyiv and Poltava oblasts, and on to the Donbas and Crimea.